MIAMI – Finally, there is just one game left at the 2026 World Baseball Classic. Nine more innings, 27 more outs.
That’s how far Team USA manager Mark DeRosa is from making the memory of his comments before the pool play game against Italy and the lineup for that game an afterthought when this WBC is remembered for years to come.
The memory of that pool play game, which the U.S. lost 8-6 in a stunner and suddenly found dependent upon the result of Italy’s game against Mexico to determine whether they would advance, perhaps it won’t be erased, but if DeRosa puts his best possible lineup together for tonight’s 8 p.m. EDT championship game against Venezuela, it will likely be an afterthought.
If you’ve since forgotten, prior to that game, DeRosa, who has no real managerial experience besides being Team USA’s skipper in 2023 and again this year, told MLB Network that the result of the Italy game didn’t matter because his team had clinched a spot in the quarterfinals. He then sat five of the best players in the game at the start despite having not clinched a semifinal berth, and had the right scenario come to pass in Italy’s game against Mexico, Team USA would have been on the outside looking in, wondering what could have been.
But here they are, in the championship game after defeating the Dominican Republic, one of the best baseball teams ever assembled, 2-1 in a memorable semifinal in which DeRosa’s best lineup beat the D.R.’s best lineup.
“Looking at the lineup card before the game started and walking down the tunnel out, you just look at all the names,” DeRosa said following Team USA’s workout on Monday. “I don’t think that there’s ever been a game that’s had that much talent both sides of the field, and just high-level play, great defense, great pitching, just great energy throughout.”
He’ll put young New York Mets starter Nolan McLean on the mound in what will certainly be the biggest game in the loudest, wildest atmosphere of his career to this point. The 24-year-old has thrown just 48 career innings in Major League Baseball across eight starts with New York last season, where he revealed himself as a bright young star, posting a 2.06 ERA with 57 strikeouts against just 18 walks.
“I’m just trying to stay in the moment as much as possible, and right now I’m on Team USA. My job is to go out there and compete for Team USA. And then after Tuesday, it’s all about the New York Mets for me from there,” said McLean, who’ll be allowed to throw as many as many as 95 pitches under the WBC’s limits, but said he’s more likely to throw 55 or 60 given where he is in his preparations for MLB’s regular season, which starts in less than two weeks. “So obviously hitting the pitch quotas I need to hit to have my arm in a good spot to start the season is a big deal, but right now I’m only worried about the next game.”
The next game, of course, is against Venezuela, a talented team that went 3-1 in Pool D in Miami, their lone loss coming to the Dominican Republic, before upsetting defending champion Japan 8-5 in the quarterfinals and beating Italy 4-2 last night before a heavily Venezuelan crowd that hung on every pitch and made loanDepot Park deafeningly loud throughout the game.
Venezuela manager Omar Lopez handled his bullpen effectively against Italy, trying to limit his pitchers a bit so they’d be available for a potential final game tomorrow, and following the win against Italy, he said everyone on the staff is available tonight, with Eduardo Rodriguez starting. Rodriguez started Venezuela’s pool play game against the D.R., allowing three runs on three hits, including homers by Juan Soto and Ketel Marte, going 2 2/3 innings and getting pinned with the loss.
“Even Johan Santana is going to pitch,” Lopez quipped last night. Santana, the two-time Cy Young Award winner and pitching coach for Venezuela, won’t get in the game, of course, but he’d probably be willing if given the chance. The game will likely hinge on whether Venezuela’s pitchers can keep the powerful U.S. lineup in check.
On Monday night, Lopez’ bullpen kept the team in the game against Italy until the bats were able to break it open, scoring three runs in the seventh, and his relievers closed it out with three perfect innings to send Venezuela to tonight’s championship game.
A few hours by plane from Miami, fans in Venezuela will be hanging on every pitch. They love baseball there, perhaps more than Americans do, and with the country still suffering from an economic crisis that began more than a decade ago that continues to the present day, Lopez has a pretty good idea what this game means, both to him and to his country.
“God gave me the opportunity to be here again, and I accepted the challenge and here I am. I am humble. I’m a person that wants the very best for my country from the baseball players or, in this case, manager perspective,” Lopez said following the win against Italy.
Lopez and his team, which features bona fide MLB stars and top prospects from the top of the order and leadoff man Ronald Acuna Jr. to the bottom, where Jackson Chourio batted against Italy, have already achieved what no other Venezuela team has – a berth in the WBC finals. In the baseball-mad country, was there anyone who wan’t watching? Possibly. But they likely are now.
“Venezuela was awake the whole night, paralyzed watching this game,” Lopez said. “But there is an engineer or someone that doesn’t know anything about baseball, but maybe he was with friends at a barbecue and he tell them Venezuela for the very first time is in the final of the WBC, and maybe Venezuela is going to do the best to give the first title of the World Baseball Classic.”
Photo: Venezuela manager Omar Lopez relieves pitcher Luinder Avila during the sixth inning of a World Baseball Classic semifinal game against Italy, Monday, March 16, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
